VIII.] ON UNDER FIORD. 117 



for the entire voyage we had set out upon, it had been 

 arranged that the steamer " Saxon " should accompany her 

 as a tender, and the Onunder Fiord, on the north-west coast 

 of the island, had been appointed as the place of rendez- 

 vous. Suddenly wheeling round therefore to the right we 

 quitted the open sea, and dived down a long grey lane of 

 water that ran on as far as the eye could reach between two 

 lofty ranges of porphyry and amygdaloid. The conforma- 

 tion of these mountains was most curious : it looked as if 

 the whole district was the effect of some prodigious crystal- 

 lization, so geometrical was the outline of each particular 

 hill, sometimes rising cube-like, or pentagonal, but more 

 generally built up into a perfect pyramid, with stairs mount- 

 ing in equal gradations to the summit. Here and there the 

 cone of. the pyramid would be shaven off, leaving it flat- 

 topped like a Babylonian altar or Mexican teocalli ; and as 

 the sun's level rays, — shooting across above our heads in 

 golden rafters from ridge to ridge, — smote brighter on some 

 loftier peak behind, you might almost fancy you beheld the 

 blaze of sacrificial fires. The peculiar symmetrical appear- 

 ance of these rocks arises from the fact of their being built 

 up in layers of trap, alternating with Neptunian beds ; the 

 disintegrating action of snow and frost on the more exposed 

 strata having gradually carved their sides into flights of 

 terraces. 



It is in these Neptunian beds that the famous surturbrand 

 is found, a species of bituminous timber, black and shining 

 like pitch coal \ but whether belonging to the common 

 carboniferous system, or formed from ancient drift-wood, 

 is still a point of dispute among the learned. In this 

 neighbourhood considerable quantities both of zerlite and 

 chabasite are also found, but, generally speaking, Iceland 

 is less rich in minerals than one would suppose ; opal, 

 calcedony, amethyst, malachite, obsidian, agate, and feldspar, 

 being the principal. Of sulphur the supply is inexhaustible. 



After steaming down for several hours between these 

 terraced hills, we at last reached the extremity of the fiord, 



